UK - Capita Symonds, a subsidiary of outsourcing giant Capita, is merging its former construction project management business with the recently acquired NB Real Estate to create a global "end-to-end" property advisory and asset management offering.
The venture will offer developers and investors property advice and services, including front-end and acquisitions, planning and development, construction design and project management, and ongoing asset and estates management.
The business will also seek to support central and local government in the UK in managing and rationalising their estates.
Mark Norris, executive director at Capita Symonds, who will lead the new division, said:
"Capita Symonds' real estate division brings a major player into the property sector that is genuinely different to anything the industry has seen before.
"By integrating the skills and heritage of Capita Symonds in property projects with the investment, agency and management expertise of NB Real Estate, we have a business that is truly unique."
Capita Symonds is a UK-based multi-disciplinary consultancy covering building design, real estate, civil engineering, environment, management and transport sectors.
In February 2010, it acquired NB Real Estate, an investment adviser and asset management company established in 1982.
Norris said: "We now have the expertise, resources and power in one place to do pretty much anything our clients need.
"Our plans are to redefine real estate for investors, businesses and the public sector, making Capita Symonds the creator and steward of the best real estate solutions and delivering significant value to our clients.
"Everyone knows the property world has changed. This presents us with a great opportunity to provide clients with new propositions tailored to their specific requirements."
Norris said the move was well timed for the UK, where investors were returning to a price-corrected market and fund managers and corporate occupiers were seeking to become more efficient in managing their properties.
He added: "Developers are beginning to build the next generation of 'future shock-proof' property, banks are cautiously lending again and refinancing their distressed real estate loans, and property owners and occupiers are repositioning their assets in a world looking for sustainable investment and business practice."
Norris said Capita Symonds was working with clients in every one of these market areas, including placing overseas investment into the London market, doing corporate sale and leasebacks and managing the development of mixed-use schemes.
The said the company was also helping investment funds achieve operating cost efficiencies through its mainstream property management activities, working with major lending banks to re-start stalled developments and recover capital from distressed assets, and providing new performance-based sustainability solutions for the built environment.
